Of the House of
Hohenzollern, hereditary rulers of the German state of Prussia. With the
creation of a unified German Empire in 1871 (upon victory in the Franco
- Prussian war), the new constitution stipulated that
the King of Prussia would be Emperor (Kaiser) of Germany. Wilhelm II
ascended to the royal and imperial thrones in 1888. He was 55 years old
and in the 26th year of his reign in 1914, start of World War One.
Wilhelm exercised actual and near-dictatorial powers in the conduct of
Germany's war activities, supported unquestionably
by the Prussian dominated military
and a generally compliant Reichstag (parliament). For years
he had conditioned German society and culture
to the conservative principles of " personal rule "
and the German Imperial Constitution reserved in
the person of the Kaiser supreme command of the military and the right
to make war - prerogatives which Wilhelm exercised fully. He
lived throughout the war, abdicating in
November 1918, just 3 days before the Armistice that ended World
War One. He fled into exile to the Netherlands where he lived for
another 23 years. With his abdication the 300 year Hohenzollern dynasty
ended.

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Of the House of Habsburg,
hereditary rulers of the Austrian Empire. Franz Josef was also King of
Hungary and King of Bohemia. From 1868, as a result of Austria's
defeat in the Austro - Prussian war, Austria had been known as the
"dual monarchy" and the "Austria - Hungary Empire".
Franz Josef ascended to the throne in 1848. He was 84 years old and in
the 66th year of his reign in 1914, start of World War One. He was the
world's oldest and longest serving monarch in 1914, and known throughout
Europe as " the venerable old gentleman ". He was
little involved in the conduct of
government and Austria's activities in the war. Although the office
of Emperor (Kaiser) exercised close to
absolutist political and military power, the Empire's
diplomatic and military activities during the war were in the
hands of the Army Chief of Staff Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf
and State Chancellor Berchthold. Franz Josef died during the war,
on November 21, 1916, and was succeeded by his great nephew the Archduke
Karl, son of Franz Josef's deceased younger brother Karl Ludwig.
Thereafter in the last years of the war von Hötzendorf and Berchthold
were removed from power by Kaiser Karl.

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Mehmed V was the
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and as such by tradition technically the
temporal and spiritual leader of the world's Muslims. He ascended to
the throne in 1909 as a result of the deposition of his brother, the
autocratic Sultan Abdul Hamid II, by reformist elements in the Army
(called the "Young Turks"). Abdul Hamid II had ruled for 33
years and was sent into exile. Mehmed V was a totally figurehead monarch
as the imposition of the constitution stripped the Sultan of almost all
his prerogatives. As with Franz Josef I of Austria -
Hungary, Turkey's diplomatic and wartime activities were
in the hands of the military.
In the case of the Ottoman Empire in the hands of
triumvirate of military officers of whom the fanatically pro-German
Enver Pasha was the dominant force. Mehmed V was 70 years old and in the
5th year of his reign in 1914, start of World War One which
Turkey entered solely upon the dictates of Enver Pasha who had secretly
ordered his Black Sea Navy ( also the German cruisers Breslau and
Goeben under Turkish flag) to launch attacks upon
Russia without provocation or declaration of war. Mehmed V died on July
3, 1918, just four months before Turkey's surrender to the Allied
Nations.

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Sultan
Ghazi Mehmed Rechad V
Photo Pietzner Vienna 1915
NPG No. 5202

"The
Awakening of the Orient"
Publ.J.C. König & Ebhardt
Hannover 1914.
Designed by Heinz Keune

Sultan
Ghazi Mehmed Rechad V
Photo Pietzner Vienna 1915
NPG No. 5212

Turkish
priest proclaiming the
Holy War in front of the
Mosque of Faith in
Constantinople.

Ferdinand was a Prince
of the German House of Sachsen - Coburg when he was recruited to assume
the throne of the Principality of Bulgaria. He ascended that
throne in 1887 at a time when Bulgaria was a newly independent
nation, but still technically a
Principality (not a kingdom) under the suzerainty of
the Ottoman Empire. In 1908 at the time of the Bosnian Crisis when
Austria - Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina from
Turkey, Ferdinand declared Bulgaria's full
independence and proclaimed himself Czar. The Ottoman Empire recognized
Bulgaria's independence in return for payment of an indemnity. Ferdinand
was 54 years old and in the 28th years of his reign in 1915, the year in
which Bulgaria entered World War One on the side of
the Central Powers. Ferdinand was a constitutional monarch but brought
Bulgaria into the war against the wishes of the majority of his
country's parliament, and while he did not exercise as much political
power as did Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, he was an
active and powerful force in the conduct
of Bulgaria's diplomatic and military activities
during the war. Bulgaria's front crumbled in September 1918 before a
combined Allied force of Serbian, British, French, Italian and Greek
armies, and on September 30, 1918 Bulgaria signed an Armistice of
surrender. On October 4, 1918, 4 days after Bulgaria's surrender,
Ferdinand abdicated and went into exile. The mantle of Czar passed to
his son Boris.

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